


A Heliotrope By Any Other Name

by IAmANonnieMouse



Category: London Spy
Genre: Alex POV, Alternate Universe, Fluff, I have No Excuse, M/M, florist danny, flower symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 16:37:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11165802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmANonnieMouse/pseuds/IAmANonnieMouse
Summary: Alex has a routine. It’s a good routine. It gets him out of bed and en route to work at the perfect time every morning. He passes the same buildings, the same cars. It’s comforting, the pattern of it all.But this morning, Alex turns onto his usual street at his usual time and is confronted with a wall of flowers.As he hesitates in the middle of the street, wondering what the hell a florist is doing in the middle of his route to work, a young man emerges from inside, carrying a small arrangement of flowers.“Oh!” he says brightly. “Hello!”UPDATE:themullermade a gorgeous graphic for this fic! Take a look at itHERE!





	A Heliotrope By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afaapm](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=afaapm).



> For [a-forger-and-a-point-man,](http://a-forger-and-a-point-man.tumblr.com/) who sent me [this](http://breadandolives.tumblr.com/post/161670794604/wintercozy-by-jcpeters) tonight and said, _thoughts on danny becoming a florist?_
> 
> The things I do for you, darling.

Alex has a routine. It’s a good routine. It gets him out of bed and en route to work at the perfect time every morning. He passes the same buildings, the same cars. It’s comforting, the pattern of it all.

But this morning, Alex turns onto his usual street at his usual time and is confronted with a wall of flowers. He stops and stares.

The sickly-sweet scent wafts towards his nose.

As he hesitates in the middle of the street, wondering what the hell a florist is doing in the middle of his route to work, a young man emerges from inside, carrying a small arrangement of flowers.

“Oh!” he says brightly. “Hello!” He’s just like a flower—thin and willowy and delicate. Fragile. Beautiful.

Alex realizes he’s staring. “Hello,” he says, a moment too late.

The young man smiles softly. “Do you want to take a look?”

Alex blinks and adjusts his satchel on his shoulder. “I have work.”

The man’s smile doesn’t falter. “Well, drop in on your way home, then? It’s my first day, and it would mean a lot to me.”

“Okay,” Alex says. 

He walks to work. He can’t stop thinking about that smile.

*

“You came back!” the young man exclaims as Alex turns down the street.

“I did,” Alex says.

The man beams at him. “I’m Danny,” he says, extending his hand.

Alex shakes it. “I’m Alex.”

“Would you like to buy some flowers?” Danny asks.

Alex knows absolutely nothing about flowers, and he doesn’t really know where he would put a floral arrangement in his home. But Danny is still smiling at him, _still,_ and Alex is a little out of sorts and inexplicably obsessed with the gentle simplicity of the name Danny, so he says, “Sure.”

Danny’s smile widens. “You’ll be my second customer today, then!”

“Your second?” Alex echoes.

“You could have been my first,” Danny says, “if you hadn’t gone to work.”

Alex wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t left to get to work this morning. It’s Danny’s first day. Maybe he would have taken Alex on a tour of the place, proudly pointing out each flower. But if he hadn’t left this morning, he wouldn’t have had an excuse to come back this evening.

Alex doesn’t know why he’s thinking about this so much.

“What are you in the mood for?” Danny asks, unperturbed by Alex’s silence.

Alex blinks and looks around at all the flowers. He doesn’t think there’s a good way to say _I really don’t care about flowers, but I couldn’t say no to you._

Alex says, “How about you decide for me?”

Danny grins, eyes sparkling. “Okay.”

*

Alex puts the Camellia and Baby’s Breath arrangement in the middle of his table when he gets home. It’s a bright splash of color, and he decides that he likes it.

He shrugs out of his suit and settles in for the night. His eyes keep travelling back to the flowers, drawn like a moth to light.

He pulls out his laptop and idly looks through his assignments for work.

*

The next morning, Danny hands him a single Morning Glory and says, “Have a good day at work.”

One of his coworkers admires the flower and comments, “Morning Glories signify affection, you know.”

Alex frowns. During his lunch break, he looks up flower symbolism.

*

“So what do you do for work?” Danny asks when Alex stops by on his way home.

He tells the lie he’s been given. “I work for an investment bank.”

Danny watches him for a moment. “Okay,” he says, after a pause.

He hands Alex a small bouquet of Purple Irises.

Alex looks it up when he gets home. Wisdom and respect.

*

Alex has a routine, and Danny has carved out a place for himself in it. He’s there every morning and every evening.

And he always has a flower for Alex.

“I never knew you liked flowers,” one of Alex’s coworkers says, a few months into Alex’s adjusted pattern.

Alex looks at her then turns back to his work.

He doesn’t know how to explain it.

*

Danny hands him a Gladiolus on a damp early morning. “Because investment banking must be taxing,” he says with a small smirk.

Somehow he’s always known that Alex isn’t really an investment banker.

Alex takes the Gladiolus. Strength and integrity.

*

“I know we’re both working all the time,” Danny says one evening, “but do you think we could manage to grab a cup of tea together?”

Alex smiles. “Yes,” he says, simply.

Danny beams.

*

They meet in the early dawn at the edge of the nearby park. It’s too early for any shops to be open, so Alex carries a thermos with his favorite tea.

Danny appears, cutting across the street. In his arms is an enormous floral arrangement.

He stops in front of Alex and smiles that brilliant smile. “For you,” he says.

Alex takes it, stunned.

There’s lavender. Lily of the valley. Freesia. Heliotrope. White jasmine.

Devotion. Sweetness. Passion. Joy. Eternal love. 

Alex tears his eyes from the gorgeous arrangement and meets Danny’s flushed gaze.

“Do you like it?” he asks, rushed. He’s fiddling with Alex’s thermos, nervous.

Alex carefully transfers the flowers to one hand then leans in, gentle, kissing Danny in the early morning light.

A stray flower hits them in the face. Danny pulls away, laughing.

“I love it,” Alex says, mouth curling. “Thank you.”

Danny smiles, beautiful and bright and fleeting as any flower. He takes Alex’s hand and they walk back towards Danny’s florist shop, perfectly positioned in the middle of Alex’s route to work.

**Author's Note:**

> I am on [Tumblr!](http://iamanonniemouse.tumblr.com/)


End file.
